Richard Mensah, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Lynx Entertainment has mentioned some factors that led to the exit of rapper Asem from his record label.
The musician-turned-music executive told Caleb Nii Boye on 3FM in an interview monitored by ghanaweekend.com that at point in time Asem suggested to Lynx that he wanted to establish his own record label.
“Asem didn’t leave the label. We ended the contract because of where things had gotten to. I think it was evident he wanted to leave. He had started taking certain actions on his own. So it was like so let’s just part ways,” he noted.
He added that both the Glo deal and an alleged rape case against Asem were also “part of” the issues that precipitated the the termination of their contract.
According to Richie when Asem was alleged to have raped 17-year-old Queenie in 2011, he told a newspaper in an interview that he would let his new management handle the situation.
“I remember when the news was about to break, somebody called me from the newspaper that was about to break it and said, guys I just saw this article; it is too late to do anything about it but I am letting you guys know so that you would know how to handle it when it gets out tomorrow and everything so we said okay, cool. So we were waiting for the paper to come so we know how to respond. So when the paper came, what shocked us was they had already interviewed him about it and he hadn’t told us anything about it. In his response he said that he was going to leave it for his new management to handle,” he said.
These are some of the reasons Asem parted ways with Lynx Entertainment
Source: 3FM #GhanaWeekend pic.twitter.com/NTqBVnf2tc
— Kwame Dadzie (@Kwamedadziegh) September 17, 2022
Richie also mentioned that the Lynx were supposed to take their cut from Asem’s Glo deal but at a point, Asem asked the telco to pay the money to him directly without giving the record label the remainder of their share.
“We signed a two-year Glo deal. The payment was supposed to have been made in four [tranches]. The label only enjoyed from the first payment out of the four. For the rest, Asem spoke to them that they should pay the monies to him directly which was against the contract,” he said.
“So our first thought was even to sue and everything, go legal. So we were about to go legal then I heard a comment that had been passed about him and I said you know what, money comes and goes I don’t want to have a long fight over money so if he feels he doesn’t want Lynx to have a share in this money, it is fine. I will find other ways to make money,” he added.
Richie, also explained that these are just some of the events that led to the end of their work relationship.
In 2009, Asem was among some sixteen (16) Ghanaian celebrities that earned ambassadorial deals from telecommunication company, Globacom.
The agreement between Asem and Lynx required that he paid 40% of his Glo earnings to the label.
In 2011, two parties ended their contract.
During his days at Lynx Entertainment, Asem produced hit songs such as ‘Give Me Blow’, ‘Pigaro’, ‘Lickel Girl’, ‘Bye Bye’, ‘No More Kpayor’ among others.
In the meantime, Asem who is domiciled in the United States of America has been off the music scene for a while.
For the past two years, he has been announcing the release of a new music project titled ‘Weather Channel.’
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By: Kwame Dadzie | Ghana Weekend
